Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Friday questioned ”political interference” in the final census numbers used to determine the number of congressional districts in each state for the next decade, calling the Biden administration’s involvement ”surprising.”
”We write today with concerns about the apportionment count released by the Census Bureau, and whether the process which derived the count was fair, accurate, and independent from any White House interference,” a letter sent Friday from 12 House Republicans to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo reads.
”Given the extra time it took to complete the 2020 Census — including not meeting the statutory deadlines by months — we have questions about the methodology and the role the Biden White House may have played in releasing these numbers, especially as the results differ from evaluation estimates released mere months ago in ways that benefit blue states over red states.”
The Census Bureau on Monday released apportionment counts based on the 2020 census. Six states gained seats in the House — Texas, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — and seven each lost a seat: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
New York, New Jersey and Illinois – all blue states – far exceeded the previous population estimate in this week’s actual enumeration count. Red states like Arizona, Florida and Texas saw large drops from the December population estimates.
”The apportionment inhabitants outcomes launched by the Census Bureau are strikingly completely different from the inhabitants analysis estimates launched simply months in the past on December 22, 2020,” the GOP members wrote. ”Remarkably, the variations profit historically blue states — which gained inhabitants in comparison with the estimates — over purple states which tended to lose inhabitants in comparison with the estimates.”
They added: ”For instance, New York was estimated to have a population of 19,336,776, but was attributed an apportionment population much greater than that of 20,215,751, a difference of nearly 900,000 individuals.
”Likewise, states such as New Jersey and Illinois experienced large population increases of hundreds of thousands of individuals compared to the December estimates, while states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas experienced large decreases from the December estimates.”
Jody Hice of Georgia, Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Michael Cloud of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Bob Gibbs of Ohio, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Fred Keller of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Scott Franklin of Florida, Jake LaTurner of Kansas, Yvette Herrell of New Mexico and Byron Donalds of Florida signed the letter.
Source: Newmax
